[Resolved]  Indigo Airlines — Stranded at airport and flight departed without me on board even after done with security check

Address: Chennai, Tamil Nadu

Name : Shivsankar Ramasubramanian
Booking reference no. : MDY7AI
Flight : 6E523

I had made a booking in an Indigo flight 6E523, to travel from Chennai to Kolkata on 06 Apr, 2012, Friday. The departure time of the flight was 08:10 AM. I was left stranded at the airport and the flight departed without me on board even after I was done with my security checking.
I had checked in at the airport at 06:30 AM and had got my boarding pass at the around the same time. I was seated in front of the Indigo check-in counter and was monitoring the status of my flight on the display screen at the airport. Till 07:40 AM the display showed that the flight is “Scheduled” but did not show that security check-in had started for the flight. As I had experienced gate nos. being changed at the last moment, I had not gone for security check-in at Gate No. 8 as specified in my boarding pass and was waiting for status to update in the display.
But the boarding time in the pass was specified as 07:30 AM. As the time was already 07:40 AM I went up to an Indigo check-in counter and enquired with one of their staff if security-check in had started for the flight. To which he replied, “You still have time”. But when the status did not update even till 07:50 AM and the flight was to depart at 08:10 AM, I went for security check-in at gate 8.I completed with my security check and was seated in front of Gate 8 at 07:55 AM. Even the display there showed the flight as scheduled. The display above gate 8 also did not show that boarding for the flight was being done there.
But when I did not find any change in the status even till 08:10 AM, I enquired what to do to a passenger seated next to me as I could not find a single Indigo staff at that floor. He suggested that I take the stairs down and catch hold of an Indigo staff.
When I went down and got hold of an Indigo staff at 08:20 AM, she in turn started shouting at me for not turning up! She said she had paged my name of the microphone many times and asked me “were you sleeping”! When I failed trying to explain what had happened to the staff, who was not ready to listen to a single word that I was telling, I asked for the next alternative. She said she could try to board me on an afternoon flight at 01:50 PM. I was taken to the same check-in counter where I was waiting where I found the same guy who had told me that there was time to security check-in. When I mentioned this to the staff who brought me there, she said, I agree mistake has been made by our staff but why did you not turn up when we paged your name many times. I was seated at the third row in front of gate 8 and the microphone was sparsely audible there, although I am sure I did not hear my name on the microphone at any time b/w 07:55 AM to 08:10 AM. And I surely WAS NOT SLEEPING!
Then the staff who brought me there said that I will have to meet their manager and I was made to sit in front of check-in counter for ONE HOUR till around 10 AM. On enquiring for the THIRD TIME if their manager had come I was taken to a room and was made to stand outside while the manager was talking seated inside! Even my case was not relayed to her and I myself had to explain the whole situation to her! After listening to the case she asked me to call the person who had given me wrong information that there was time to board the flight. After I called the guy, the manager questioned him and she understood that a miss had been made on their part. She asked him (in Hindi, though she was conversing the whole time with me in English but I happened to be well versed in Hindi) if he logged into the system to check if boarding had started for the flight and if he had verified for the staff in charge for the boarding of this flight, before giving me that answer. The person’s answer to both the questions were a “NO”. The manager also asked to me the same thing, as to why you did not respond when we paged your name so many times and that they even tried calling my number [protected] given at the time of booking. When I told her there was no log in my phone of such a call being made, she had nothing to say!
But even after understanding that a miss had been made on their part, all the manager had to say was that I would be accommodated in an alternate flight at 01:50 PM and that I would have to pay a 1500 rs plus the fare difference of 4100 rs. I requested many times that at least I should not be charged anything but she did not agree to it and in-fact kept my cancelled boarding pass on her table and started doing her other tasks. She in-fact left her office and was away somewhere in some time with me still standing there! Another staff in the office booked me a ticket in the flight and she said that the fare difference is 4626 and not 4100! I finally had to pay 6126 rs and take a flight at 01:50 PM to complete my travel. My original round trip ticket cost me 7384 rs, i.e around 3800 rs for one way. Instead I ended up paying around 9818 rs for the same.
I raised a complaint on the Indigo site to which they replied that they understood the situation but there is no way they could make a refund even then.